Let’s Talk Mac Prep & Prime Fix + Shimmer

If you haven’t heard of Prep + Prime Fix Plus, then where on earth have you been? It’s been on the scene for quite some time now, and it’s popularity has really soared recently thanks to the inclusion of it in numerous YouTube beauty tutorials. I probably don’t need to talk too much about what the product is used for, but for anyone unfamiliar; it’s essentially a beauty mist that can be used to finish and refresh makeup, hydrate the skin, help with product blending (especially foundation) and is also fantastic for bringing out pigment in eyeshadow (just spray it onto your makeup brush before applying the product).

Recently, Mac have majorly expanded the range; this previously consisted of just the Fix plus original, but late last year, we saw three new scent additions – coconut, lavender and rose. Then last week, we were treat to the shimmer versions, with two available options; goldlite and pinklite. Kind of easy for anyone who’s not familiar with the product and who is thinking of purchasing, to be confused over where to begin…

All three ranges (original, scented and shimmer) do the same thing – exactly what I described in the first paragraph. The scented versions, have the addition of scents, obviously; but that’s where the difference ends. That being said, the scents are a really welcome addition (I went for coconut, so I can’t comment on the others), and I’ll now purchase this one over the original. It just gives the product that something extra, coconut is my favourite scent – but if you get it wrong in products, you can be left with that awful synthetic coconut scent – I don’t get that with this product. It’s a lovely, refreshing, delicate scent and it just makes the product that extra bit more special to apply. I love it – please don’t stop making it.

So after my little coconut rave review up there, you can understand how excited I was to hear about the new shimmer additions. I love a good shimmer product and I’d also seen a swatch on one of the beauty instagram accounts that got a preview – it looked incredible and I was super hyped for the release. That swatch, whatever it was, was not a swatch of this product, certainly not sprayed directly from the bottle. I purchased the Goldlite version, and there is barely any shimmer on application at all. It looks all gorgeous and shimmery and swirly in the bottle, plus I adore the new packaging… but the product itself is so disappointing. The shimmer is so unnoticeable, that I couldn’t even get it to show up on a picture for you guys. Seriously, I may as well have just posted a picture of my bare arm. Mac, are you okay hun? Because your product isn’t. It’s the same product we all love, works just as well – but I bought this for the shimmer addition and there’s just nothing there. I had visions of this greatly enhancing my tan in the summer, and making my skin subtly catch the light on evenings out – but I may as well have just stuck with the original. I’ve actually just sprayed it again because I wanted to see if I had a bad application the first time… but no, it’s still the same. A tiny, tiny hint of shimmer – but really nothing worth shouting about. The thing is, it does actually look so promising in the bottle, so I’m wondering if there’s an issue with the spray design itself, and that’s preventing the shimmer from being distributed properly… who knows?

Mac, I love your Fix + spray, I adore your coconut version, but this one has just left me feeling a little bit deflated. Please add some more shimmer to this (or investigate the design) because this product launch got me super excited, and in theory is a great idea – I’m just not sure what happened to the reality.